Munich 2018 Olympic Bid Gathers Steam

The managing director of the Munich 2018 Olympic bid tells Around the Rings the organization is weathering the financial crisis and expanding its operations in readiness for the bid battle to come.

“There is no global financial gold rush but we have what we need to go on,” said Richard Adam, who took up the leadership role in January.

Adam denied the bid is facing a struggle to raise the $39 million to fund its bid activities in the run-up to the 2011 vote on the 2018 Olympic host city, backing up comments made by IOC Vice President Thomas Bach to ATR in February. Bach said a third of the budget was secured for the bid.

“We are satisfied with where we are now. We think we have an excellent bid,” said Adam.

He said the bid company was busy recruiting employees and would swell in number to 15 executives by the summer in preparation for the start of the bid campaign in October. A new Web site detailing basic information about the bid will launch in a few weeks.

“We are set up in terms of infrastructure. We are recruiting key people in a step-by-step approach in order to integrate them thoroughly,” he said.

Adam is working closely with bid manager Bernhard Schwank to advance the German city's plans for a 2018 Games.

He said their four priorities are: finalizing master planning for the venues, securing the venue locations, developing the environmental concept and developing the financial plan for the non-OCOG budget.

“Master planning the bid book is well advanced, all relevant expert and focus groups are active and contributing,” said Adam, noting that key development projects were on their way. “We are now going into the strategic fun part.”

Munich is vying to become the only Summer and Winter Olympic host city, following its staging of the 1972 Games.

Under the bid concept, Munich would hold ice events, with snow events to be staged in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, site of the 1936 Winter Games, and sliding events in Koenigssee.

PyeongChang, South Korea and Annecy in France are expected to provide the main competition in the race for the 2018 Winter Olympics.

The Korean city is set to launch its third attempt for the Winter Olympics, although the Korean Olympic Committee could abandon those plans and opt instead to back the city of Busan with a bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics.

NOC officials completed a two-day inspection of PyeongChang and met with the city's sports leaders this week, according to local media reports. The Olympic committee is expected to give its decision on whether to allow PyeongChang to bid for the Winter Olympics on April 23.

Last month, the French Olympic Committee selected the alpine city of Annecy over bids from Grenoble, Nice and Pelvoux-les-Ecrins. Annecy's bid includes skiing in three major ski areas nearby, including the slopes of Mont Blanc. The lakeside city is also well equipped with skating facilities and has good transport links.

Bids from other countries for the 2018 Games are expected in the coming months.

The IOC will formally launch the 2018 bid process after the selection of the 2016 Olympic host at the IOC Session in Copenhagen, Denmark Oct. 2. The IOC deadline for submitting applicant cities is mid-October. An Applicant City Seminar takes place in Lausanne in December.

The IOC votes on the host city at the 123rd IOC Session in Durban, South Africa in July 2011.

With reporting from Mark Bisson.For general comments or questions, click here